Sunday, January 15, 2012

Jack Kennedy Elusive Hero by Chris Matthews is one of the best books that I have ever read, bar none. And I am not even a big fan of non-fiction reading! I should not have been so surprised at what an excellent writer Chris Matthews is, because he is an outstanding journalist, but this book out-surpassed my expectations!

By the time Jack Kennedy ran for President of the United States, I was ten years old. My grandfather was the political writer for our local newspaper, my mother was a precinct captain, and my grandmother was County Treasurer. So I had some experience with listening to political conversations around the family. Interestingly, my family were all strict Republicans. Then Jack Kennedy came along and my mother adored him! I remember quite clearly as a child, being frightened during the Bay of Pigs incident and our practicing getting under our desks at school. And then that horrible day in 1963, when I was a freshman in high school, and we learned that President Kennedy had been assassinated. I remember my aunt telling us about my uncle who was in his car driving somewhere when he heard the news on the radio and he pulled the car over and sat and sobbed, unable to drive. That was how it affected people.

So when I heard Chris Matthews being interviewed about his new book, I had to read it. Something old pulled me to the story.

This is not a book about Jack Kennedy being assassinated. It is not a book about any of the speculations, rumors, or gossip about Jack Kennedy. It is a book about who he was. Jack Kennedy loved history and as a child read historical biographies voraciously. He said that the reason people read biographies is to answer the question "What was he like?". This is what Chris Matthews set out to do with his book on Jack Kennedy. And the answers were fascinating.

This book is based on in-depth interviews with those who knew and worked closest with Jack Kennedy, friends and former staffers. Most of the book is about his life leading up to becoming President. I was fascinated with how he slowly and painstakingly campaigned for years leading up to the election. I don't know that there was ever a time following his service in World War II that Jack Kennedy did not plan to be President of the United States. The history of those times is amazing and Jack Kennedy's judgement and wisdom to lead us as a country was extraordinary; even when he erred, he learned and never made the same mistake. He held to what he believed was right, even when others advised differently. I was especially taken with his stance and fortitude dealing with the civil rights issues.

"He loved courage, hated war, lived each day as if it were his last." As Matthews writes, “I found a fighting prince never free of pain, never far from trouble, never accepting the world he found, never wanting to be his father’s son. He was a far greater hero than he ever wished us to know.”

Monday, January 9, 2012

I have read several of Ann Patchett's books and, so far, Patron Saint of Liars is my favorite. Interestingly, it was her debut novel!

An old hotel in Habit Kentucky became St. Elizabeth's, a home for unwed mothers run by nuns. Rose Clinton was married and living in California when she found that she was pregnant. She got into her husband's car and began driving across the country without informing anyone of what she was doing. She arrived at St. Elizabeth's, with the intent of giving up her baby and moving on with her life. While she was staying there, she became an assistant in the kitchen, soon taking over all of the cooking as the staff began to realize that she had a talent for it. After Rose's baby was born, she decided to keep the baby and was allowed to remain at the Home to work in the kitchen. The older groundskeeper had befriended Rose and fell in love with her. Rose married him and she and her baby, Cecilia, lived with him in his small house on the grounds. Sadly for Rose, her past caught up with her in the end.

The book seemed to insinuate that girls/women who go to these homes are "liars". I have found it interesting in my genealogical research that the few times that I have attempted to research women who went to unwed mother's homes, the women usually gave false names, making it extremely difficult to trace them. So perhaps by the very nature of the process, they start out with lies. They lie to their family and friends, often to the father's of the babies, and then lie about their circumstances to the other girls at the home. And there are probably millions of cases where the women have never told anyone about having the baby, sometimes taking the secret to their grave. Certainly, Rose was deceptive as soon as she learned she was pregnant, by leaving her family without telling them she was having a baby, then arriving at St. Elizabeth's and being both deceptive and evasive there. Then she married (even though she was still married to her husband in California) and her new family knew nothing about her past life.

Very interesting to consider all the factors involved! The book was really well-written. I did not find Rose to be an especially likable character, but I found her quite interesting. Good book!

I read Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks on my Kindle last month. I thought that the premise of it sounded interesting. The story deals with sexual abusers and homelessness.

I was somewhat disappointed in the whole book, although parts of it were interesting. The whole sadness of homelessness and how people end up in that situation is thought-provoking. In this book, the Kid (as he is called through-out the book) is a convicted sex offender who lives in what I would consider a colony of sorts under a causeway in south Florida. The colony of people who live there are all convicted sex offenders, who cannot find anywhere else to live, due to the restrictions of not being able to live near children, schools, etc. The Kid is a young man, just out of his teens, who had a sexual relationship with an underage girl. That seemed, to me, to rather set him apart from the others that he lived with. He seemed to be more a victim of circumstances.

The police raid the camp/colony and the Kid ends up meeting the Professor, an extremely obese college professor who claims to be doing research on homelessness and sex offenders. The relationship between the Kid and the Professor is interesting and as the Kid learns more about the Professor, the Kid has to deal with those issues.

I found the book to become weaker and weaker as the story went on. Parts of it were interesting, probably only due to my own past experiences working with clients. The story does raise the issue of how to house sex offenders in society after they have completed their prison time. But it doesn't take a whole book to address that issue.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Right before Christmas I saw Martin Fletcher, foreign correspondent for NBC News, on the Today show discussing his new book, The List. I was so struck by his story that I had to read the book. If I recall correctly, he said that when his father died in 2005, Martin was clearing out his father's belongings and in a nightstand drawer he found a list. As he studied it, he realized that it was a list of names of all of his father's family members who had disappeared during the Holocaust. Every name had a line crossed through it. On the other side of the piece of paper were listed all of Martin's mother's family members who had disappeared during the Holocaust. I don't remember for sure, but I believe that there might have been one or two survivors on his mother's list, because I remember him saying that his father would put a check mark by the name if the person had survived. I was especially struck by the thought of what it must have been like for Martin to have discovered this list and not realize that his father had been working on that list for the past sixty years.

The interview with Martin Fletcher was so interesting to listen to. I felt like the interviewer didn't quite get it as they kept referring to it as a book about the Holocaust and Martin would correct them saying that the book was not about the Holocaust, it was about after the Holocaust...how the time after the Holocaust affected people as they struggled to learn if family members had survived, where the family members might be, and trying to build new lives for themselves. One reviewer wrote that she remembered her own family in London doing the same and it wasn't until 1971 that they learned what had become of the last family member that they were searching for.

As Martin researched for the book, he also discovered more information about a plot in London by Palestinian Jews to assassinate Britain's foreign minister, so he included that in the story, that added some very interesting history and suspense to the story.

The List, by Martin Fletcher, is a fictionalized novel based on his family's story, as they struggled to begin their new lives in London after World War II. George and Edith were Austrian refugees living in London in 1945, awaiting the birth of their first child. It was difficult for them to experience their great joy at bringing a new life into the world while they were vigilantly searching for word of what had become of their family members, learning of deaths of so many others. They wondered how they were going to survive living in London where Georg could not find a job. On top of that there appeared to be growing anti-Semitism in London, as servicemen returned and were unable to find jobs and housing, and the Jewish refugees were being blamed for taking jobs and housing away from them.

In the story, Edith's cousin, Anna, is located and comes to London to stay with Edith and Georg and begin her new life. Anna had been with Edith's family when they were taken away by the Nazi's, and knew some of what had become of Edith's family. She thought that perhaps Edith's father had survived the Holocaust, giving Edith great hope that perhaps her "Papi" was still alive.

Meanwhile, Georg learned of the plot to assassinate the British foreign minister and struggled with wanting to stop the assassination, yet not betray the Jewish faction behind the plot.

The story is heartbreaking and hopeful and inspiring. It certainly made me think about what it must have been like, not knowing what had happened to family members. And, sadly, that even now in 2012, there are still many people who have not been able to learn about what happened to their family. Devastating.

The List is a very interesting, readable book that tells an important story that we all must learn and remember.

My birthday and Christmas are in December and that meant books, books, books for me! I got some money from my parents for my birthday, and quickly went to Barnes and Noble and bought myself a gift card with the money! And am doing the same with money that I received for Christmas! What better gift than one of books? And then for Christmas, I also received 3 books that I had asked Santa for! Here is a list of the books that I acquired in the month of December:

Little Heathens by Mildred Armstrong Kalish

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

The List by Martin Fletcher

Jack Kennedy by Chris Matthews

The Time of Our Lives by Tom Brokaw

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Diodon

Lincoln by David Herbert Donald

On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry

Children and Fire by Ursula Hegi

So far, I have completed reading Little Heathens (for book group this week) and The List (to be reviewed this week on this blog). I am currently reading Jack Kennedy and am thoroughly enjoying it. I have found it interesting that four of the nine books are nonfiction, which I don't usually tend to read, although I always have great intentions of reading more nonfiction. The List is a novel, but is based on real life, so it is not counted as nonfiction, but it almost is!

And then, to top it off, one of my absolute favorite gifts that I received for Christmas was a new tote bag that is a To Kill A Mockingbird theme!!! I love it!!!